


Time is a River

by LettersofSky



Series: Distant Past Zine Pieces [6]
Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-23 18:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21085526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LettersofSky/pseuds/LettersofSky
Summary: Time is a winding river and your existence is bullshit. So you deal with it.





	Time is a River

**Author's Note:**

> Last of the pieces I did for Distant Past Zine: https://twitter.com/distantpastzine  
I definiely did forget the Handmaid for a moment there, that's on me ;w;  
I actually didn't think I'd be able to write anything for her because I struggle a lot with female characters that aren't mine for a variety of issues, but I did! And I really enjoyed writing this piece ^_^  
I just kinda, ran with the idea of her being an outsider looking in on the goings on of the world she can't really live in and used it to fuel this piece.  
She's very good, deserved so much better.

Time is a winding river.

It has many little offshoots and creeks that will eventually dry up and fade away into nothing, not even worth considering when the main body of the river continues to flow as it always does; ever onwards towards its predisposed destination.

You think that’s bullshit.

You let everyone around you know just how bullshit you think that is.

Which means you let the Cueball that is “raising” you know exactly what you think of his attitude and opinion towards time and the continuum of it all. He, of course, mocks you for your “childish” thoughts in comparison to his boundless knowledge but that doesn’t stop you from thinking that each and every time he stars spewing words about destiny and pre-decided upon paths that he’s just pulling a load of bullshit from the depths of his empty, white head.

You know time. You know it better than he does.

You know time. You have to know it to break it, shatter it, make it do what you want of it in ways no one else had ever thought possible. It’s what you do, it’s what you were created to do.

And that gall of him to think you’ll just lay down and fall into whatever set of decisions and paths he and his “Lord” want of you is beyond laughable, it’s disgusting.

So you ignore him. At basically every occasion.

And it annoys him to no end.

And they can’t kill you for it. Killing you would be a blessing, a relief, it’s what you want so they can’t threaten you with that when you misbehave and ignore orders and suggestions.

Which you do often by taking time into your own hands like you’re supposed to and instead of contributing to the main body of the river, you ignore the ever-flowing continuum for something infinitely more appealing and enjoyable to experience. Even if you can only experience it yourself from the side lines.

That’s enough for you.

Well it isn’t but there’s no point being upset or angry about it when you’re on your own. No, it’s best to direct those emotions to someone deserving of being on the receiving end of them instead of keeping them trapped inside your own head with no outlet to project them at.

Keeping anger to yourself is just stupid. Being angry on your own is just stupid.

You’re not stupid. You’re not doing that.

What you are doing, is watching one of the creeks you’d decided to intervene in.

You’ve set this one into motion and now you’re going to sit back and watch it play out.

The main body of the river did not have a very kind outcome for the trolls you’ve been observing on and off through its flow of time, which was both rude and awful so you were going to ignore it as long as you could. Which, considering that you could ignore the rules of time however you wished by breaking them in new ways and the fact that you had a limitless life span to figure out new and interesting ways to do so, was a very, very long time.

You had so much empty time to fill however you wanted to.

And what you wanted right now was to watch the lives of this band of outcasts and rebellion sowers go about their lives together now that Really Red Tiny One wasn’t going to be strung up and executed by some unhappy Religious Clown asshole.

Well, actually they’re being a bit boring right now what with their quadrant-blurring antics and the like, right now so you might just skip ahead into the future a bit to see if you can find a more interesting viewpoint and everything is on fire.

You promptly say ‘fuck that’ to that conclusion and tear yourself a way into a time somewhere between the disgustingly affectionate quadrant-blurring antics and the firey doom of something having gone wrong and find yourself somewhere much more interesting.

Your favourites have somehow gotten themselves to survive long enough to meet up with Winged Pretty Boy, and it looks like this time around he’s gotten himself a collar made out of clown teeth scars, which certainly is something you’ve never seen before. Probably because you tend to pass Winged Pretty Boy over for the more interesting figures that are Spider Pirate and… the other one… whatever he was, it’s unimportant. The point is that your favourites have met up with him and there looks to be an argument breaking out between then and Winged Pretty Boy and fuck yes. You have chosen a great place to pop back in on the timeline.

Sparky is shouting at Winged Pretty Boy, Winged Pretty Boy is shouting back, Really Red Tiny One is trying to calm them both down, Predator Big Cat is looking between the three of them like she’s as ready for a fight to break out as you are, though for different reasons of course, and Caregiver looks to be sporting the beginning of a headache.

You hope a fight does break out, that would be so much fun to watch.

It probably won’t because you’re sure that Sparky is more arguing with Winged Pretty Boy because Really Red Tiny One can’t quite look at the other mutant without his eyes stalling on the ring of hideous looking scars around his throat. Also you know for a fact that Sparky agrees somewhat with Winged Pretty Boy; shared experiences giving them similar mindsets and all but fuck.

You would really like to see a fight break out though. Just think of how dramatic that would be!

You’re starting to wish that you had something to munch on while you watch all this drama unfold before your eyes when your whole mood takes a urn for the worst as Cueball makes an appearance.

Asshole can’t even let you enjoy the unfolding drama the way you want to without coming in to check that you’re going to do what he wants, which is bullshit because neither you nor he would exist if you hadn’t done what he wanted at some point in your future so why can’t he just leave you be to experience the closest thing you have to an actual existence?

Fucking asshole Cueball. What does he want now?

“_You can’t possibly be at this again, can you?_”

Yes? So what if you are? It’s not as if any time you waste actually means anything does it? Not when you can just tear your way into whenever the hell you want to. Or does his limitless knowledge gloss over that little glaring detail?

“_It’s foolish to see these timelines past where they diverge from the main timeline,_” and he’s fucking ignoring you again. Even though you both know for a fact that he can hear every single, tiny thing you’ve ever thought to yourself. Asshole Cueball. “_Even more so when you further them past the point where they should have collapsed in on themselves from their lacking relevance._”

Again… so what if you are? What’s he going to do about it? Is he going to kill you? Is he going to lock you in your room like a child refusing to do her chores before she goes out to play? Is he going to lock your powers away? Tell Big Bad Skull Man on you like a little snitch?

You’d like to see him try.

“_I don’t need to do any of that. For you’ve already lost your interest in these pathetic lower life forms and whatever nonsense they get up to with their fleeting lives._”

… Fuck.

“_The timeline is already starting to fall apart without your attention on it, isn’t it? It isn’t stable enough to support itself this far away from the main timeline._”

Fuck.

“_Even if you wanted to put it back together and hold onto it longer, which we both know you don’t, you’ll just be acting as the voyeur once again. Always watching from the sideline, never able to interact in ways that would be anything that even ghosted as satisfactory, aren’t you?_”

Maybe you like being the voyeur? Had he never thought of that? Fucking asshole Cueball coming in and ruining a whole timeline, a whole new scenario and situation with so many off-branching possibilities, for you.

“_I believe we both know the answer there._”

… Fucker.

“_I will see you after you sow the Seer’s death into the Clown’s primitive scripture, you have another assignment waiting for you afterwards._”

Of course you do, you have nothing but assignments, task after task after task with nothing in between and you’re alone again.

Fucking Cueball just leaving like that, fuck him.

And the timeline you were watching is gone too; collapsed in on itself before it got to the juicy part like they always do. Enough to catch your interest by never enough for you to really enjoy it like you want to.

This is also bullshit.

Your whole existence is bullshit.

…

You suppose you should get to work then, not like you have anything better to do then ensure the river of time flowed like it was supposed to.


End file.
